Suri goes on patrol with her dad. King Saber's next victim is a little too close to home for Taiga's liking.
"Damn, another dead end?"
Suri groaned and rolled her neck as she and Ketsuiki exited the dozenth nondescript shop front for the day. It had been a long, uneventful day of patrolling the downtown area with the only sign of any excitement was tripping a petty purse thief. And what kind of thief runs around with two extra arms made of ooze screaming something about meta liberation or whatever? The three purses he'd stolen were returned to their owners and the dude was thrown into the back of a police car. Other than that rousing bit of excitement, Suri and Natsu had been strolling from storefront to storefront with Alpha.
He'd made it into sort of a personal hey look everyone, I'm back kind of grand tour. The only thing pushing that imagery out of her mind was having Yumei's voice in her ear. Alpha was specifically choosing certain places to scout and make drop bys on cause each one had the snake girl listing off its past and potential contacts with King Saber. This last place, up until a month ago, had been owned by Kenji Mutakabe's former head of security, the man who had been tucked into King Saber's right side in that picture of him and Taiga. Apparently, he'd sold this place not long after Kamino and was enjoying retirement in Hawaii while the young couple who'd bought it from him was turning it into a swanky little bar.
"Not a problem, thank you for your time," Alpha chuckled as he bid the couple farewell and filed Suri and Natsu out onto the street. He looked the two younger heroes over and then upwards to the evening sky. With a grin, he pointed up to a roofline. "Let's take this upstairs."
Without another word, Alpha was gone, a single bound that didn't look like it had taken him much energy at all. Not much energy or not, he was now four stories above them. Suri and Natsukage nodded at each other and then put all of their energy into the jump, both of them needing to make a smaller jump just under the fourth floor roofline. Neither of them were quite ready to make fourth or fifth floor leaps in a single bound. As they climbed over the railing and steadily onto the roof they watched as Alpha looked out over the evening skyline.
"Vipress, any more details on them?" Alpha asked evenly, deep in thought already.
"Tai Kamijo, age 26, graduated not too long ago from Tokyo Business College with a degree in business and finance. Naturally. His job history is mostly bartending for all of college and bussing tables all through high school. He has a telekinesis Quirk and, like, he's gotten a few written warnings for unlawful use of it," Yumei explained, browsing through four different screens of information and records.
"How so?" Alpha asked directly.
"Actually… bartending," Yumei answered. "The last couple bars he worked, he was a favorite. I'm looking at a couple videos of him using his Qurik to float bottles and pour them into glasses. A couple tricks here and there. Guests loved him but the bar owners didn't."
"Unlawful use of your Quirk in a business setting," Natsu shrugged. "If you're not drawing attention or making a scene, most business owners will look the other way. If he had videos on YouTube or social media however..."
"The owners could get in deep shit with the cops," Suri finished everyone's collective thought.
"Speaking of cops," Alpha nodded, retaking the point in the conversation.
"Right! Sorry, sir," Yumei chirped and quickly cleared her throat. "Other than the warnings, he's pretty clean. A couple parking tickets over the years so there's nothing too outlandish, but he's also not overly suspicious in being really squeaky clean."
"He's just an average dude that apparently really likes the food service and bartending industry. Granted, he probably wants his own place so he can use his Quirk without someone breathing down his neck about it," Suri surmised and sighed. "It's not really something we can go knock him for though, is it?"
"No, not really," Alpha shrugged. "You could probably get him to use his Quirk more sparingly and less egregiously if you happened to become a regular patron. He'd be less likely to go all out if a pro was in the building, on duty or not."
"Sir, none of us are old enough to drink," Natsu said, quirking an eyebrow.
"I didn't say it would be you kids, right?" the big man grinned, flashing fangs with a delightfully smug expression.
"Yeah yeah, we get it old man," Suri rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Vipress, whatchu got on the wife?
"Oh, right! Ari Kamijo, maiden name is Yamaguchi, age 23, also just graduated from Tokyo Business College. She got her degree in graphic design, looks like she took an extra credit or two in some interior design courses. Job history includes food service, office jobs, convenience store clerk, and an internship she just finished at a media company in Tokyo. Looks like her and Tai have been married for five years, got married right out of high school, no kids. Her Quirk changes the color or design of any surface she touches," Yumei commented, going down a list of information that painted a picture of the couple.
"That explains why I couldn't smell any paint," Alpha nodded. "Sounds like she's redecorated the place and redone all of the walls by herself. That's pretty convenient."
"Umm police history, she's about as villainous as her husband," Yumei chuckled softly. "A couple speeding tickets and a written warning from the dean of the college. Apparently he wasn't happy she used her Quirk on her dorm room."
"Okay, so they're a happy couple that wants to start a business instead of a family," Suri shrugged and placed her hands on her hips.
"Let's see, ouch," Yumei cringed on the other end of the comm devices. "She was caught in a villain attack in high school and got injured. Had a piece of rebar go through her hip, she had to get her uterus and one of her kidneys removed. This bar is going to be their baby…"
"Fuck, that sucks," Suri sighed, cringing at the poor choice of her words.
"We'll make sure that their baby takes flight then" Alpha said with a solemn tone of determination, folding his arms across his chest. "And what about Takeyama?"
"Let's see, he sold them the property pretty cheap, liquidated the other assets and valuables and," Yumei paused for a long moment. "Sir, Takeyama is dead! Looks like he was involved in a bad auto accident this morning. Died on the way to the hospital."
"Any eye witness statements, Vipress?" Alpha quickly asked.
"From what I can see, there's nothing. A jogger came across the crash, like, twenty minutes after it had happened. Wrapped his car around a telephone pole," Yumei explained, briefing everyone as she went through the reports.
"That's not suspicious at all," Suri quipped, folding her arms tightly. Her ears then began twitching as she heard police and ambulance sirens begin to wail somewhere in the distance.
"Yeah, well it, like, gets better," the snake girl grumbled. "Hotohori, his former financial advisor? Call just came in, she just washed up on the beach in Aldera Bay."
"Rook, Wild Eyes, on me," Alpha commanded and took off due south, heading straight for where Suri had heard sirens congregating less than two miles away from them.
"Sir!"
Suri and Natsukage leaped after the older werewolf, following him closely as he bound and ran at breakneck speed across rooftops. His movements were effortless, vaulting and rolling himself with ease over every obstacle that came through his path, freestyling the terrain without a single wasted breath or movement. For Suri, it wasn't as smooth, she was going as fast as she could to keep up with her dad but found herself slipping behind when she tried to counter several obstacles and miscalculated her speed or jumps ever so slightly. Natsukage was having a much easier time, picking an easier route for himself with far less obstacles for him to traverse. It made Suri realize that her decision making skills still needed work. A lot of work.
She made the decision to follow Natsu's lead, picking a slightly easier path for herself instead of trying to do everything her dad and the dhampir were doing. It helped her catch up to the two of them in time to make the final leap off of the last apartment complex before the waterfront. The jump included clearing the span of a busy five lane road, a well used jogging path, and a grass embankment before hitting the sand. The three of them came down with a loud thwump sound, making small impact craters before marching forward to the police and EMT crews already swarming the scene.
As they came to the scene, Suri spotted someone familiar and couldn't help the small smile cross her lips. When he saw the three of them coming, he paused his conversation with an officer and met the trio half way, smiling a little as he saw Suri.
"Detective Kusababra, it's good to see you," Suri stated with a small nod.
"Same to you, Wild Eyes. You look a lot better than the last time we talked," the detective chuckled softly.
"Yeah, well, last time I was chained to a hospital bed having a lovely conversation with a racist, bigoted old timer," Suri shrugged with a grin.
"Well he's Sapporo's problem now," he snorted and then turned to look up the inch or two it took to meet Alpha's eyes. He then offered a hand to the bigger man. "You must be Alpha. I've heard a lot about you from my partner and the old woman. Gotta say, it's kinda strange having a pro hero from the US roaming the city."
"Hitting the old stomping grounds actually," Alpha chuckled as he accepted the hand Kusabara offered and shook it firmly. "The Outsiders and I go way back and I've stepped in to help out since Kodiak was forced into retirement."
"That makes sense," Kusabara nodded. "I'm assuming since you showed up, you know the victim by chance?"
"Karin Hotohori," Alpha confirmed to which Kusbabra nodded and turned on his heels, leading the three of them to the body of the deceased woman. "Cause of death?"
"We aren't sure yet," Kusabara answered and came to stand just out of reach of the dead woman. He was refusing to make any significant eye contact with her, and from the carnage, it was easy to see why.
Suri and Natsukage were overcome with morbid curiosity as they began casing the scene, taking note of the woman and her surroundings. She was torn up from head to toe, covered in lacerations and bruises to the point that her teal colored skin was nearly all dark blue, red, and a sickly brown. It was clear that she had been beaten but more than that, her legs were twisted backwards, bone protruding through the shin on her left and calf on her right. Her ankles were ragged with deep indentations across the ragged skin that indicated she'd been tied up. One of the two horns sprouting from the crown of her head was broken as well, meaning she might have put up some kind of fight before she was beaten beyond repair. Her clothing, or what was left of it, was a silk nighty, which meant she'd been abducted while she was asleep or was about to turn in for the night.
"She's a tiefling," Rook pondered out loud as he crouched down beside the body and began inspecting the wounds. It made Suri pause to crouch down on the other side of the woman and take in a deep breath, inhaling the scent.
"How can you tell? I thought tieflings were like a subclass of demons or hellspawns, I don't smell sulfur on her," Suri pondered, her eyes locking onto a particularly brutal blow. A set of claw marks across her throat. She narrowed her eyes and dipped in closer, carefully reaching for a strand of hair stuck inside the bloody incision. "Yo, Rook. I've got something."
"Tieflings can be, yes. Ancestry wise, they're closer to human than even a half demon would be but noting Miss Hotohori's features," Rook motioned towards the woman's horns and a pronged tail. "I'd say she is of a demonic bloodline. And that looks like fur."
"Tiger?" Suri questioned out loud as she pulled it closer to her nose and tried to see if she could find any sort of lingering scent. All she could smell was blood and ocean.
"Find something?" Alpha questioned as he came to loom over Suri, watching her and Rook closely. Kusabara was right behind him with a crime scene investigator right behind him, looking over the body nervously.
Suri wasn't sure if the man, no more than twenty, knew about preternatural beings so she decided to play it safe just in case.
"I found hair. Normally my Quirk would be able to pick up something, but it's gotten washed out by the ocean. Salt water's fucking with my senses," Suri stated evenly. Her eyes locked with the investigator and she motioned with her chin towards the hair dangling between her claws. He caught on quickly and brought an evidence bag forward, allowing Suri to deposit the evidence she'd collected.
"The depressions in the sand suggest she was still alive for a time," the investigator quickly added, motioning with his chin towards the sand behind the woman. "Tide helped carry her ashore and she was able to crawl about five feet, but I believe suffocation had already set in."
"Markings on her ankles suggest she was bound as well," Rook added for the investigator.
"Does that mean she was thrown into the water with her ankles tied to something?" Yumei asked over the comms, making Suri shudder at the thought. Because it was probably right.
"What kind of bastard abducts a woman, beats her like this, and then anchors her to the bottom of the ocean?" Suri growled. Inside her mind, she already knew the answer. She was sure that the claw marks were from a wereanimal and she was sure the hair would come back as tiger.
She was sure the man responsible was King Saber. And then her dad confirmed her suspicion.
"It's him," Alpha sneered as he crouched down next to Suri and carefully peeled the woman's garments back. The motion exposed the dead woman's breast, but it also revealed something else. A marking gouged into her flesh like Gemini had done to Bakugou, this time, it was a simple three point crown. "Rook, Wild Eyes, on me. Vipress, gimme an address for Miss Hotohori's residence."
The place was an absolute wreck.
Karin Hotohori had, in fact, put up a fight and from the looks of it, she'd held out for as long as she could. Between overturned and uprooted furniture thrown across the living room, kitchen, and bedroom to her upscale flat, the ensuing fight had determined the open floor plan wasn't open enough. Part of her four poster bed frame was creating a second doorway from the bedroom directly into the living room. One of those posters was also rendering the TV that had been on the living room wall useless and was wearing the screen like a sock.
Dozens of spots on the walls, furniture, and floor was an indication that Karin had been using more than fists. She'd registered her flame based magic as a pyrokinesis Quirk, meaning she'd been fighting the tiger with literal fireballs, she apparently also had a firespell that made her spit fire like a flamethrower.
How did they know that?
Taiga said so.
The weretiger had been waiting on the doorstep when Alpha, Natsu, and Suri arrived at the home. The expression on her face when she saw Suri was a horrendous mix of fear and regret but that didn't stop the beast girl from running to her and slamming into her with a tight hug. The heiress spent the next few minutes guiding the three heroes through the tiefling woman's flat and told them about the last conversation she had had with her.
She had been on the phone with Karin just before King Saber arrived.
"Karin realized she was probably going to be next on my father's list," Taiga said solemnly as she led the three of them to the woman's home office. "What better way to gain access to your lost fortune than to make a visit to your old financial advisor, right?"
Taiga laughed bitterly as she opened the large main drawer to the desk, only to find it empty. She shut it and her brows furrowed at something that only she recognized.
"I have a feeling however, her death may be my fault," Taiga berated herself softly as she went to the woman's desk and took in a long, deep breath. She then raised her left hand to her left eye, placing three fingers over it and reciting an incantation as her right index finger drew a circle across her fingers and then crossed the circle downwards. "And now to mine, eyes lay bare, something lost, that was once there."
A flutter of power rose from the desk as small runes engraved around the edge of it glowed with a soft golden light. There was a soft hum of energy that lasted for a split second and then the room felt empty and silent once again. This time however, when Taiga opened the drawer of the desk, it now had a laptop, a tablet, and a cellphone inside placed neatly together. She picked up the three items, turned and handed them to Alpha.
"I believe these will be safer in your possession than mine. What Karin and I compiled would be more than enough to indict my father on hundreds of different charges that he's not already wanted for. You'll also find access to his holding and offshore accounts that he's been revoked permission to by my order. We also did some tidying up to your old reports through the years, expounding the research you've done. I do need to ask, if I may, Alpha," Taiga straightened herself as she looked the veteran pro in the face. "If you knew Kenji Mutebake, my father, was King Saber, why didn't you end him when you had the chance?"
Alpha looked the girl dead in the eye, paused and then took a deep breath before letting his shoulders sink. He looked from the weretiger girl down to his own daughter and let out a slow grumble of regret and remorse. He began chewing on his bottom lip before he finally let out a curse under his breath and started pacing slowly around the office.
"The more I look back, the more I realize it was by far my biggest mistake in my entire career. And I've had a few. But, to be straight with you, I keep coming back to three reasons I let the man live," Alpha began admitting. "That night, six years ago, I was with All Might, Gran Torino, and Sir Nighteye, in a four man raid on a small island facility between Iki Island and the Saga Prefecture. We thought we were going to be knocking on All For One's door at a summer home or some shit, turns out, it was a stronghold."
"Your dumbass thought it was going to be his house?" Suri scoffed, rolling her eyes at her dad.
"That's what our intel told us," Alpha defended. "Nighteye, Gran Torino, and myself took on the bulk of the villains while All Might went after All For One. I made it a point that it was our job to keep the small fries off of Toshi's back and then he showed up." Alpha's tone dropped into a low rumbling growl as the vents of that night played over in his head. He was reliving the fight in vivid detail. "I had him down for the count, knocked the fuck out, I had the right mind to take him out for good but something he said during our fight hit me."
"And what would that be?" Taiga asked, her brow furrowing.
"You," he chuckled humorlessly. "He said something to the effect that he'd secure the future his daughter deserved. That everything was for you. Suri, there's a reason the briefing had that picture of him," Alpha declared, turning his eyes to Suri then. "That's what I remembered before I thought about killing the bastard and then I remembered my own vow; that I wasn't a killer. I was a hero, someone who saved lives, not took them."
The righteousness in his voice settled then as he let out another deep sigh.
"And that's when the entire place came crashing down." Alpha shook his head as the events of that night continued to play in repeat. "I checked on Nighteye and Gran Torino, made sure they were okay, and then I had to go pull All Might out of the rubble. He was in really bad shape so we prioritized getting him help. We thought All For One was dead, but when we turned around King Saber was gone."
"So, what, you want me to remember that picture every time I see him or something?" Suri asked incredulously.
"No," Alpha rolled his eyes and shook his head. "I want you to see the difference. She looked happy back then, but was she as happy as you know her now?"
"Tch," Suri snorted and let a big, wyly grin cross her lips. "You obviously didn't hear how happy she was last night. What was it? Oh right. Drop that nitrous boost inside me, my darling supercharged mustang. Make me-"
"My Queen!" Taiga screeched and lunged forward, slapping a hand over Suri's mouth so she could stop imitating the heiress. Then came the whisper screamed confirmation. "You heard? I wouldn't have been so loud if I had known you were in our Fenrir's room!"
"Oh, no hun, we weren't in his room. We were in Mina's," Suri retorted, her grin growing even wider. She watched the shock grow as she realized how far away they'd been. "You two literally kept everyone in the entire building awake until what, three in the morning? You should probably apologize to Kyo next time you see her, by the way."
"Oh by the gods," Taiga whimpered, realizing her mistake. That's when Suri placed both hands on the taller girl's shoulders and looked her dead in the eye with every ounce of care she had in her heart.
"Like I said, I know how happy you are with your life right now.. I ain't letting your pops or mine get in the way of that," Suri happily vowed to her friend before pulling her in for a tight hug.
"Vipress, ETA on the transport?" Alpha asked, chuckling softly as he watched the two girls.
"Waiting out front for you," Yumei replied warmly.
"Rook and I will continue searching the premises and see if we can find anything else. You and Miss Mutekabe can take these back to base and get a head start on them. Keep us in the loop with anything you find before we make it back.
"Understood, sir!" Suri declared with a nod. "C'mon, hun, let's take this fucker down for good."
Taiga gave her own happy nod and the two of them left the flat, happy to leave the scene together knowing that Taiga was safe. Safe from the big scary weretiger anyway, she was however not safe from Suri. And that transport ride back to the Outsiders Agency gave Suri a lot of insight into something she didn't know before and didn't know if she wanted to know. Because now she couldn't scrub the mental image of two of her best friends going at it. On the brightside, Tenya had let go any byegone notions of what he thought wereanimals were like and he was no longer holding any prejudices. Though, now she'd have a hard time looking him straight in the face if he tried to be an overzealous boy scout.
Go figure, all he had to do to not hate on the furries… was to bang one.